Late waterfowl season coming

Thursday

Dec 20, 2012 at 12:01 AM

Waterfowl season has been gone just long enough for hunters to miss it.

By MARK SPENCLEYmark@cheboygantribune.com

Waterfowl season has been gone just long enough for hunters to miss it.Good thing its coming back.For hardcore waterfowl hunters, there is a little more than a week left before a symphony of shotgun blasts announce the beginning of late goose season in southern Michigan. This is just enough time to freshen up calling skills, round-up decoys, and clean shotguns before hunting gets going again.This late hunt offers 30 more days of Canada goose hunting across most of southern Michigan. Though the hunting isn’t close to home, the action is well worth it.“Goose numbers are up and the length of the goose season has lengthened significantly,” said Barb Avers, Department of Natural Resources waterfowl specialist.Exposed crop fields should have countless geese taking advantage of the lack of December snow.The season will broken into two segments, kicking off on Dec. 29. This first phase will run Dec. 29-Jan. 1. The last season will be substantially longer, beginning Jan. 12 and ending Feb. 10. Nearly the entire South Zone will be open to goose hunting, except the special Goose Management Units. These units share the Dec. 29–Jan. 1 season, but aren’t open to hunting during the later season.Hunters will be allowed to bag five geese per hunter across most of the South Zone. In the specially regulated Goose Management Units hunters will be limited to two geese per hunter. Late season action can be very good, even more so when more home grown birds are available, according to Avers.Local giant Canada geese make up 70 percent of Michigan’s goose harvest,” she said. The other 30 percent of Michigan’s goose harvest is comprised primarily of two migrating goose populations, the Mississippi Valley Population and the Sothern James Bay Population. Both of these populations have remained steady over the last year. Both of these flocks do much of their breeding in Hudson Bay, Ontario, and then migrate south when fall arrives.